5) Find at least ONE peer-reviewed article that discusses your social issue problem and how it is portrayed by the media (ideally this would be focused on your social issue and problem, but this may be difficult to find – so an article on TV, radio, internet, movies is OK).
- See Finding Peer Reviewed Journals guidelines for how to find a peer-reviewed journal article through the APUS online library (under weekly Lessons)
5) Write-up your paper
a) Cover Page
b) Clearly identify your chosen social issue/problem.
a. Why are you interested in studying this?
c) Write-up your analysis of how this social issue/problem is addressed in the 5 songs you chose
a. NOTE: this is the majority of your paper. It is a ‘comparative critical’ analysis of how your chosen social issue/problem is addressed in these songs. It is NOT a summary of each song, and it should not include cutting and pasting the lyrics of all of the songs into the paper.
i. If you submit a paper that is full of copied lyrics, you will receive a ZERO.
b. Use the prompts in step 3 to help you organize this analysis
c. Information about the singer/band should be a VERY minimal part of this analysis; the lyrics are the heart of the analysis
d. APA-formatted in-text citations should be used throughout this section
d) Briefly describe the TWO sources you found that discuss music and your chosen social problem.
a. Discuss how the analysis or commentary in these two sources compares to your analysis
b. Remember your APA-formatted in-text citations
e) Briefly describe your chosen peer-reviewed article.
a. What is the main research question/thesis of the article
b. What is the research method used in the article (i.e. survey, interview, content analysis, observation, experiment, etc)
c. What are the key findings of the article
d. Discuss how the findings in this article can help you to better understand/explain your chosen social issue/problem and how it is addressed in your chosen songs
e. Remember APA-formatted in-text citations
f) Conclude by discussing how your analysis is helpful and relevant in the study of American Popular Culture 